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The hens at the beauty salons do it all the time. The key is, I think, to simply announce to them that you have changed jobs. If they prefer to deal with you rather than your former employer's company they'll make that decision without you courting them.

If you feel like you have to, I would do it in such a way that you say "Hi Mr. business owner. I just wanted to thank you for your business for the years I worked for Company A. I enjoyed servicing your account. I'll be working for Company B now, so someone else from Company A will be servicing your account." If he contacts your new employer of his own volition then great for your new employer. You haven't asked for his business or insulted your old company, just stated the fact that you're changing jobs.

Alternately, your new employer could pursue the client and just drop your name, thereby leaving you out of it.

Law is a very specific thing. Murderers walk on technicalities, and the no-compete/confidentiality agreement might not even hold water.

It is my personal view that it is ethically wrong to wear the uniform of a current company, and discuss your leaving said company and try to bring them over to your new company. That being said, there is nothing wrong with contacting customers after you have changed and giving them your contact info, and telling them "you can reach me if you ever need my help at this number." As far as the legal stuff, non-compete agreements are virtually unenforceable. A company that wants to enforce one of these is put in the awful position of dragging customers via subpoena into court to testify against you. Also not very good for business.

inform them you're leaving your current employer. Let them and your old boss know they can contact you any time if they have any questions about their equipment.

Take the high road, and you'll always come out smelling like roses.

we have an ex employee trying to get our accounts right now......a lot of the customers have told us he's been by several times. they are all beginning to get annoyed that he won't leave them alone.

You are absolutely right. If you give them your number after you have gone, and they choose not to contact you, leave them alone. The key is the ex employee is bugging the customer. If you gave them good service, and that fails to continue when you leave, they will contact you. But I have seen techs try to move over customers while they are working for their old boss. Unethical. And then they wonder why some companies take your keys and send you home in a cab when you turn in your 2 weeks.

Unethical Behavior Garners Consequences

The company I worked for recently had a mass exodus of a service manager, the lone salesman and 10 techs. They all went to the same company and quickly moved in on many of our accounts. They all had signed a non-compete clause which forbids the solicitation of customers for two years. They maybe waited two days before they started dropping off business cards and actually taking several accounts almost immediately. There must not be that much legal weight to those non-compete documents or those folks are just incredibly ignorant. Nonetheless, word has gotten around about these folks and it isn't a good word. Even though there were some excellent techs in the bunch, their reputations in supply houses and in the local HVAC community in general has been terribly damaged by their unethical behavior. If things don't work out for their current employer, they may have a difficult time finding another job locally. (I was working in an adjacent state and had a tech from a refrigeration company come up to me and state that he had heard of this debacle. Such news travels far and wide and amazingly fast!) Who is going to want to hire folks who could very well pull the same stunt on them?

The company I worked for recently had a mass exodus of a service manager, the lone salesman and 10 techs. They all went to the same company and quickly moved in on many of our accounts. They all had signed a non-compete clause which forbids the solicitation of customers for two years. They maybe waited two days before they started dropping off business cards and actually taking several accounts almost immediately. There must not be that much legal weight to those non-compete documents or those folks are just incredibly ignorant. Nonetheless, word has gotten around about these folks and it isn't a good word. Even though there were some excellent techs in the bunch, their reputations in supply houses and in the local HVAC community in general has been terribly damaged by their unethical behavior. If things don't work out for their current employer, they may have a difficult time finding another job locally. (I was working in an adjacent state and had a tech from a refrigeration company come up to me and state that he had heard of this debacle. Such news travels far and wide and amazingly fast!) Who is going to want to hire folks who could very well pull the same stunt on them?

I'm with you on this, but I can see a company looking to expand their client base taking a chance for short term gains.

The no-compete/confidentiality agreement is there to stop EX EMPLOYEES from going after your customers , it has no POWER against your customers dropping you and going with another company who happens to employ your EX employees.